NEW DELHI: Politics in India seems to be in an era of freebies, where every party offers cash doles or concessions ahead of elections. Last year, the NDA offered Rs 10,000 to over 75 lakh women in Bihar just before the polls, which helped the alliance to achieve an overwhelming majority.Riding this trend, AIADMK and DMK have also placed their bets ahead of the upcoming assembly elections. In what the DMK calls the single largest financial aid extended to women in the state’s history, the government credited Rs 5,000 last month to 1.31 crore women under the ‘Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thittam’.Meanwhile, AIADMK’s manifesto promises Rs 2,000 per month under the ‘Kula Vilakku Scheme’ for all ration cardholders, to be deposited directly into the bank accounts of female heads of households. The party also pledged a “free refrigerator” for every rice ration-card holder if it returns to power.Interestingly, this is not the first time parties have tried to lure voters with pre-poll gifts. Welfare politics in Tamil Nadu dates back to the Dravidian movement, which framed the state as an active instrument of social justice.Chief minister from Congress K Kamraj can be seen as a pioneer of populist schemes in the state. He introduced Midday meal scheme along with free school uniforms for students.The scheme – designed to address malnutrition and encourage low-income families to send their children to school – significantly increased school enrolment and attendance, reducing dropout rates.Three seers of rice for Re 1In 1967, CN Annadurai promised three seers of rice for Re 1 through the state public distribution system (PDS). Though the scheme proved expensive and difficult for the government to sustain.After winning elections, Annadurai became the chief minister and implemented the scheme for sometime in a few pockets but later scrapped it owing to the financial burden. However, the move establsihed welfare as a political tool still used today.Noon meal scheme experimentAIADMK founder MG Ramachandran became chief minister in 1977 and extended welfare measures to improve school participation. The landmark noon meal scheme of 1982, later expanded, became one of the largest such programs globally, significantly boosting enrolment among children from poorer families.Subsequent governments led by M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa built on this model, adding benefits like free uniforms, footwear, and educational support.By the late 1980s and 1990s, welfare schemes also included consumer goods, reaching a turning point in 2006 when the DMK promised free colour TVs, rice at Rs 2 per kg, cooking gas connections, free electricity, and loan waivers for farmers and weavers. The TV scheme alone costs around Rs 3,600 crore and reached nearly 45 lakh households.Jayalalitha’s Amma canteen schemeIn 2011, promises escalated into a bidding war. DMK offered a mixer or grinder, AIADMK promised both; when free laptops were proposed for college students, Jayalalithaa extended it to high school students. Additional offerings included uniforms, footwear, 20 kg of free rice per month, and free cable TV.After returning to power, Jayalalithaa expanded welfare further, distributing mixers, grinders, fans, laptops, textbooks, goats and cows for rural households, gold for mangalsutras, subsidised scooters, and free electricity up to a set limit.Jayalalitha’s government also launched the Amma Canteen scheme in 2013. These canteens were designed to provide nutritious, hygienic food at heavily discounted prices to the urban poor, daily wage labourers, and students. Despite political changes in the state, the canteens have largely continued to operate due to their immense popularity and the essential service they provide to the working class.By 2016, the DMK promised milk at Rs 7 per litre, while AIADMK countered with farm loan waivers, 100 units of free electricity, two-wheeler subsidies for women, and gold for brides-to-be.Evolution of the social service schemesNow, the social justice schemes seem to shift toward cash transfers and universal benefits. The DMK’s free bus travel for women, introduced in 2021, saw 4–5 crore trips monthly, improving mobility for low-income women.AIADMK now proposes extending such benefits to men and offering Rs 2,000 per month to female household heads.The fiscal question, however, cannot be ignored. Tamil Nadu is not a poor state, but it cannot perform fiscal magic. The state has long defended borrowing as productive and growth-linked—a rationale that can more easily support schemes like subsidised breakfast and bus travel than promises such as a refrigerator for every ration-card holder.Such schemes carry substantial fiscal implications. Reportedly, the monthly cash transfer alone could cost around Rs 36,000 crore annually, while Tamil Nadu’s total welfare expenditure already ranges between Rs 45,000–50,000 crore per year. The state’s outstanding debt exceeds Rs 8 lakh crore, with annual interest payments of roughly Rs 40,000 crore.Tamil Nadu will vote in a single phase on April 23 for all 234 constituencies, with counting scheduled for May 4.